• My Little Pony (unregistered)

    frost?

  • (cs)

    About a month after I started my very first job out of school, we had a rather nasty snow storm (though not quite as bad as the one in the story). Not wanting to be late for work, I left very early, picked up a friend who was plowed in, and spent 2 hours making the normally 20 minute drive into the office. Having survived several very close calls, we made it into work only 10 minutes late.

    Nobody else made it in for another 4 hours.

    I swore right then and there that I would never, and I mean NEVER, rush to get to work again, and after 25 years, I haven't.

  • thisguy (unregistered)

    frist!

    That is one cold blooded company. TRWTF is that clearly Obama caused that snow storm to get time off work.

  • Liberal Bush Hater (unregistered) in reply to thisguy
    thisguy:
    frist!

    That is one cold blooded company. TRWTF is that clearly Obama caused that snow storm to get time off work.

    Oh come on! You know it was Bush's fault!

  • (cs)

    I remember this storm. I usually work 9 9 9 9 4 for my 40 hour work week but I ended up working 9 hours one Friday and 8 the next to make up for the missed day of work... I don't get any vacation days, either because I'm contracted out to my workplace via an employment agency or because I was a "new" employee (2 or 3 months at the time, 5.5 now)

    Addendum (2010-06-01 09:48): Anyways I went into work the following day... the road was quite hazardous (not having anti-lock brakes didn't help). I recall it being a bit empty at work for most of the day, though a handful of people did trickle in and out throughout the day.

  • (cs)

    So was this HR drone actually sending those e-mails from the office? And if so - when and how did she drive in?

    The icing on the cake would be if she was working from home while insisting everybody else drive through the snowstorm.

  • Knux2 (unregistered)

    If you require the use of the company snowmobile, please submit a request three weeks early, along with documented proof that you will need it.

  • (cs)

    We were doing business with a firm from Jordan (as in, Middle East, Arab country sort of thing) and wanted to set a conference call on a Monday.

    "No, we can't make it, because snow and ensuing travel chaos have been predicted."

    And sure enough, photos exist of the capital, Amman, covered in a white layer, with a man in traditional Arab dress watching the scene.

    Meanwhile, over here, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, temperatures seldom dropped under 10 C (50 F), and as far as I know, it has never ever snowed over here. Sometimes you get hail, but that's it.

    As for this company; well, we in Europe may be spoiled with 24+ days of vacation leave, and it may lead to a stagnated market, economic woes and Judgement Day, but some companies on the other side of the Big Pond have some seriously messed up work ethics.

  • Rob Carlson (unregistered)

    Should probably redact the part about Columbia Gateway. There are a bunch of companies there, but not too many that its impossible to figure out who this is about.

  • thnurg (unregistered)

    Did anyone else notice the "email address WTF"?

    Is that HR woman's name Burnham or Burnmah?

    Captcha: ludus - Recently destroyed in the slave revolt.

  • (cs)

    Sounds like my company in many ways, and being in the Great White North, "Snowpacalypse" can be expected to happen once or twice a year. (Though this past winter we didn't get any; it all went south).

    Each time it comes up, I've been trying to get them to firm up an official Snow Day policy, but HR continually just says "Use your own discretion and try to make up the time" or some BS like that. Luckily our policies are somewhat flexible enough to accomadate this, but it would be nice to have some guidance on when we don't have to come in. As is, my own rule of thumb is if the transit buses aren't running, neither am I.

  • Ollie Williams (unregistered) in reply to My Little Pony

    Soulless large company forgets to treat its "resources" like human beings?

    Please. I bet this was the same story at several dozen other places of business in the DC area.

    Boss to HR the night before: "Those weanies are going to bitch and moan for a snow day like a bunch of children. The roads are never really THAT bad. I don't care what the weather channel says, tomorrow we are open no matter what."

    TRWTF is companies like these still find employees.

  • eric76 (unregistered)

    I used to live in the Houston area.

    One night, we had a hurricane coming in. It was expected to make landfall early in the morning near Galveston. It wasn't a real big hurricane, but any hurricane coming ashore meant rough weather.

    I stayed up as long as I could watching it come in on the news and weather channels, but dozed off a while before landfall.

    The next morning, I woke up to the phone ringing. I answered it only to be asked why I hadn't arrived at work yet.

    I responded by mentioning the hurricane. The caller said to look outside. I did -- it was a beautiful day with no wind and blue skies. I started wondering if I had slept for 2 or 3 days.

    It turned out that the hurricane landed about 50 miles to the east and the weather from it didn't make it to Houston.

  • ali (unregistered) in reply to My Little Pony
    My Little Pony:
    frost?
    Best frist. Evar.
  • Mr. S (unregistered)

    Thankfully my workplace was closed during the Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse.

    My girlfriend, who was scheduled to take the LSAT at Georgetown, wasn't as lucky. They were the only University in the DC metro area that didn't cancel the exam and expected people to walk/drive to their campus through 2 feet of snow during a white out. One email to the testing company containing excerpts from the NWS advisory warning that going outdoors could result in death later, resulted in a rare exception that allowed her to sit for another location's rain/backup exam.

    I wonder if these people actually look out of their windows?

  • zmb (unregistered)

    I have had to go to school for 1/2 day without power and some teachers decided to have class with 1 flourescent tube providing light. District acutally said we were having school even though the power is out on the website.

  • Henfry (unregistered)

    My company's policy is basically the same; the building is always open, and if you can't make it in to work on a normal work day you'll either have to make up the time during the same billing period, take a vacation day, or take an unpaid day off. Some of the managers live right across the street from the office building, so they can always make it to work.

    They don't send out snarky emails to us when it snows, though, and they're fairly flexibly about making up lost hours, plus working from home is a possibility. So my experiences haven't been as frustrating as those in the article.

  • Sean (unregistered) in reply to Liberal Bush Hater

    "I did not have sexual relations with that snowstorm." -- Clinton (citation needed)

  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to ali
    ali:
    My Little Pony:
    frost?
    Best frist. Evar.

    Agreed.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    This is really ridiculous given our line of work. Whenever the weather gets a bit messy I just remote desktop into my machine at work and I'm looking at exactly the same screen I look at in the office. To be honest, I sometimes wonder why I bother going into the office at all. Remote desktop has been a standard feature of Windows for what, 10 years?

  • Joshua (unregistered)

    Unfortunately, I have worked for companies that have reacted similarly to extreme weather.

  • (cs)

    Fortunately, the company I currently work for is much better than my previous one. In the big snowstorm of Feb '03, in which the Governor of PA declared a state of emergency and that all roadways were closed to non-emergency vehicles (i.e. if a cop sees you on the roads, you're getting ticketed), my company stated that they were still open. The street on which I parked didn't get plowed for a day and a half and the state of emergency was in effect for two days, so I was forced to take 16 hours of vacation. Unfortunately, our vacation was accrued weekly, and I only had 4.5 hours. The company "graciously" allowed me to go negative on my vacation time, and to make it up with my weekly accruals. Yeah, there's a reason I don't work there anymore.

    BTW, we were contracted out to the State of PA at the time, so we were supposed to report to work even though our client was closed.

    One guy on the project lived within walking distance of our building; he actually walked over to work and was the only person in the building for the entire first day, and was one of only a very small handful in the second.

  • (cs) in reply to Severity One
    Severity One:
    we in Europe may be spoiled with 24+ days of vacation leave, and it may lead to a stagnated market, economic woes and Judgement Day, but some companies on the other side of the Big Pond have some seriously messed up work ethics.

    What exactly is wrong though? Sure, it's stupid to pretend that there is no problem at all, but even in Europe, companies aren't required or expected to keep paying their employees when they can't come to work.

    Germany has very strict labor regulations, but they basically say that:

    • You can't be fired for not coming to work due to circumstances outside your control, but
    • Your employer can reduce your wages proportionally (i.e. count it as unpaid days off)
    • If you can make it to work, but there is no work to be done (e.g. because needed parts are sitting in a warehouse on the other side of the world), your employer has to pay you regardless

    Basically, not living within walking distance of work is a risk whose costs you have to bear, while depending on regular deliveries of parts is a risk whose costs your employer has to bear.

  • (cs) in reply to Mr. S
    Mr. S:
    Thankfully my workplace was closed during the Snowmageddon and Snowpocalypse.

    My girlfriend, who was scheduled to take the LSAT at Georgetown, wasn't as lucky. They were the only University in the DC metro area that didn't cancel the exam and expected people to walk/drive to their campus through 2 feet of snow during a white out.

    A few years ago, I was driving to take a calculus final when I lost control of my vehicle in icy conditions, spun out, and wound up parked on the median of a four lane highway. Facing home, instead of my destination. I took it as a sign.

    When I got home, I called my professor - he informed me that my grade in the class was high enough that I was actually entitled to skip the final entirely, which I did. But I felt bad for the others who had to haul their butts in that day.

  • (cs) in reply to Henfry
    Henfry:
    My company's policy is basically the same; the building is always open, and if you can't make it in to work on a normal work day you'll either have to make up the time during the same billing period, take a vacation day, or take an unpaid day off. Some of the managers live right across the street from the office building, so they can always make it to work.

    They don't send out snarky emails to us when it snows, though, and they're fairly flexibly about making up lost hours, plus working from home is a possibility. So my experiences haven't been as frustrating as those in the article.

    I really hope you're kidding. If a state of emergency is declared, and working from home is unavailable for any reason, no one should be expected to work because it would require breaking the law and putting oneself in danger. I would not accept having to use my vacation. If the company attempts to discipline me, I would have to remind them that asking employees to break the law (and punishing them if they don't) is itself illegal. Lawyer up!

  • Kempeth (unregistered) in reply to Ollie Williams
    Aaron:
    The icing on the cake would be if she was working from home while insisting everybody else drive through the snowstorm.
    Hehe. Icing...
    Ollie Williams:
    Soulless large company forgets to treat its "resources" like human beings?
    Isn't that why they are called "resources" - so it is easier to forget that they're humans?
  • Vollhorst (unregistered)

    Only two weeks of vacation? Is that even legal? shudders

  • Patrick (unregistered)

    Snowmageddon? I remember that. Here in New Brunswick we call that "Thursday"

  • Michael (unregistered)

    Similar situations arose during the recent Icelandic invasion of Europe, who got people stranded at various holiday locations all over the world.

    For e.g. Germany, experts on employment law were pretty consistent in their claims:

    1. You must not be laid off or get a warning letter if informed your employer about your predicament.

    2. If you fail to inform your employer, a warning letter may be issued, or a layoff may happen if you had failed to do this repeatedly.

    3. You may have to use vacation days or overtime to cover your unplanned leave (modulo regulations by trade unions, work councils etc.).

    The usual regulations still apply - e.g. if you become ill, or are injured, you're excused provided that you have this documented. Additionally, companies who are interested in motivated employees may consider reasonable policies.

  • wtf (unregistered) in reply to Kempeth
    Kempeth:
    Ollie Williams:
    Soulless large company forgets to treat its "resources" like human beings?
    Isn't that why they are called "resources" - so it is easier to forget that they're humans?

    Utah Phillips had a wonderful line, delivered at a graduation ceremony. He told the assembled graduates, "You're about to be told once again that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Have you seen what they do to valuable natural resources?"

    (His description of the aftermath of this speech is also brilliant: "There was a great wailing and rending of garments - mine, mostly.")

  • (cs) in reply to Ollie Williams
    Ollie Williams:
    Soulless large company forgets to treat its "resources" like human beings?

    Please. I bet this was the same story at several dozen other places of business in the DC area.

    Boss to HR the night before: "Those weanies are going to bitch and moan for a snow day like a bunch of children. The roads are never really THAT bad. I don't care what the weather channel says, tomorrow we are open no matter what."

    TRWTF is companies like these still find employees.

    ~10% unemployment rate (official numbers, more like 17%+) is why companies like this still find employees.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Liberal Bush Hater
    Liberal Bush Hater:
    thisguy:
    frist!

    That is one cold blooded company. TRWTF is that clearly Obama caused that snow storm to get time off work.

    Oh come on! You know it was Bush's fault!

    BP's, surely - a prelude to the oil spill.

  • (cs)

    I would have E-mailed her back, CCing all of HR, preferably upper management, and everyone in the company (if lists existed for such things). I would proceed to explain that my lawyer is very anxious to see them in court. When the streets are not safe to drive on they can't force you to drive on them. If they try to, sue their asses and enjoy your extended vacation, sitting on a couple million.

    In any case, I'm Canadian, living in Northern Ontario. Snow isn't overly surprising here. A couple of years ago I drove home in white out conditions almost daily for two months straight. Notice though, that I was driving /home/. I wasn't driving to work in those conditions. That's for sure.

  • (cs) in reply to Sean
    Sean:
    "I did not have sexual relations with that snowstorm." -- Clinton (citation needed)

    Insert obvious Hillary joke here:

    1. ...since 1981.
  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    I used to work for a SF Bay Area-based company, out of their Washington, DC area office. It took a hurricane for them to finally take me seriously when I told them that we needed an official policy for when the office would be closed. Since this involved rescheduling customer seminars and other public events, it had to go way up-levels. :-P

    FWIW, the company's office was closed for several days during Snowmageddon, no arguments from management.

  • (cs) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Ollie Williams:
    Soulless large company forgets to treat its "resources" like human beings?

    Please. I bet this was the same story at several dozen other places of business in the DC area.

    Boss to HR the night before: "Those weanies are going to bitch and moan for a snow day like a bunch of children. The roads are never really THAT bad. I don't care what the weather channel says, tomorrow we are open no matter what."

    TRWTF is companies like these still find employees.

    ~10% unemployment rate (official numbers, more like 17%+) is why companies like this still find employees.

    And just add the last step of this reasonning : That's why liberals WON'T EVER fight against unemployment : it's too useful to make non-deciding people lower their claims. But wait... they SAY they fight against it, don't they ? Yes, they *say* it.
  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    This is really ridiculous given our line of work. Whenever the weather gets a bit messy I just remote desktop into my machine at work and I'm looking at exactly the same screen I look at in the office. To be honest, I sometimes wonder why I bother going into the office at all. Remote desktop has been a standard feature of Windows for what, 10 years?

    While that is a technically feasible and sensible plan, it isn't always practical. The last couple of places I worked had non-developers who get jealous over such "special treatment". They claim that because they can't work from home, it is unfair to allow anyone to work from home. Never mind the fact that most of them don't have jobs that could be done solely from a computer to begin with. The real kicker is that HR and management would rather not deal with the bitching-- no matter how infantile and inane -- so they just quash all work from home.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Vollhorst
    Vollhorst:
    Only two weeks of vacation? Is that even legal? *shudders*

    Yes, legal and standard practice in the US.

  • Brian (unregistered)

    I used to work on Columbia Gateway Drive. And the "company policy" sounds like it would have fit in perfectly for the company I worked for there. Thank god for telecommuting. I'm working in Baltimore now and I couldn't get near my office for a week and a half.

  • Virtualinheritance (unregistered)

    That's why I love my company I can take a "working from home" day anytime I please ( I normally chose to do this once per week) Right now I'm at my brothers graduation ceremony posting from my phone I had forgotten the graduation was today and a simple Msn post at 8am to announce I was taking the AM off was enough i don't think I'm leaving this place anytime soon btw, I work for a big corporation

  • Smitty (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Anonymous:
    This is really ridiculous given our line of work. Whenever the weather gets a bit messy I just remote desktop into my machine at work and I'm looking at exactly the same screen I look at in the office. To be honest, I sometimes wonder why I bother going into the office at all. Remote desktop has been a standard feature of Windows for what, 10 years?

    While that is a technically feasible and sensible plan, it isn't always practical. The last couple of places I worked had non-developers who get jealous over such "special treatment". They claim that because they can't work from home, it is unfair to allow anyone to work from home. Never mind the fact that most of them don't have jobs that could be done solely from a computer to begin with. The real kicker is that HR and management would rather not deal with the bitching-- no matter how infantile and inane -- so they just quash all work from home.

    This is exactly the situation at my job. Devs used to be allowed to work from home, until a woman in another department (that's right, outside of IT) got wind of it. She threw a huge bitch fit with HR, throwing words like 'discrimination' and 'lawyer' around. Since this company is run by gargantuan pussies, they caved. Now we can only work from home in an emergency, and even then it's unofficial and our manager literally whispers when you ask to do it.

  • EngleBart (unregistered) in reply to frits

    This reminds me of another "equal treatment" policy I heard about circa 1997. I do not know if it is still in effect.

    UPS delivery company IT workers could not have food or drink in their offices since the truck drivers could not have food or drink in their trucks!

    They said the kitchenette was standing room only.

    NOTE: Typed as I sip some coffee in my cube.

  • Nicole (unregistered)

    My university waits until everyone is on the icy roads driving through the terrible conditions before canceling classes. You finally make it to school and THEN you find out, so you get to turn around and grumble the whole way home.

  • (cs) in reply to toshir0
    toshir0:
    And just add the last step of this reasonning : That's why liberals WON'T EVER fight against unemployment : it's too useful to make non-deciding people lower their claims. But wait... they SAY they fight against it, don't they ? Yes, they *say* it.

    That would be the everywhere-except-the-USA definition of "liberal" that you're using, right?

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Remote desktop has been a standard feature of Windows for what, 10 years?
    I think it was added to the desktop OS in Windows 2000. It was still called terminal services, after Windows NT 4 Terminal Server (from a few years before). XP renamed it to Remote Desktop.
  • (cs) in reply to brazzy
    brazzy:
    What exactly is wrong though? Sure, it's stupid to pretend that there is no problem at all, but even in Europe, companies aren't required or expected to keep paying their employees when they can't come to work.

    The problem is that these companies pretend that they might close the office due to inclement weather because it sounds good, but in practice they don't.

    I think we'd all appreciate it if the company would just be honest, and say that people will have to take vacation days or make up the time.

  • Bill Lumbergh (unregistered)

    Ah, ah, I almost forgot, Rick... I'm also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too. We, uhhh, lost some people this week and we sorta need to play catch-up. Mmmmmkay? Thaaaaaanks.

  • pecus (unregistered) in reply to Nicole
    Nicole:
    My university waits until everyone is on the icy roads driving through the terrible conditions before canceling classes. You finally make it to school and THEN you find out, so you get to turn around and grumble the whole way home.
    My university is the same way. I thought their policies were ridiculous until I realized that the university expects all the students to live on campus in the dorms and the professors to live within walking distance.

    It just shows how hard it is for universities to adapt with technology changes.

  • I'm sick of the idiocy (unregistered)

    Looks like Scrooge showed up a couple of months late. I wondered what happened when he (she, in this case) wasn't there to spoil Christmas.

  • Mads Bondo Dydensborg (unregistered)

    I know this is off topic, maybe even trolling, but seriously...

    In Europe, we have 4-5 weeks of (paid!) vacation. I personally have 6 weeks, my wife 7. Pr. year. From you start working.

    I have no idea how you live with only two weeks of vacation a year.

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